Silly dragons

Sometimes you just have to have some fun as an illustrator. As a good friend of mine really likes dragons, I thought I’d work on a few dragon illustrations. However rather than overtly scary and ferocious, I thought I’d opt for funny. And maybe even try cute! So I’ve been drawing silly dragons.

I am posting the results here, but also on my portfolio, as you never know when a client may want silly dragons or even daft dinosaurs. Maybe for a picture book or story book? So taking inspiration from soppy socks, hilarious haircuts and old radio shows like the Navy Lark and Hancock’s Half Hour I started. I have always been a huge fan of William Heath Robinson and so had to include the odd bizarre invention too (just to make it relevant to me). If anyone has any further suggestions, then pass them my way, as I would love to hear them from you. The artwork has been created using conventional and digital techniques, which is something I am experimenting with at the moment.

Here’s one or two interesting mythological facts about English dragons:

Dragons are mythical creatures, typically depicted as gigantic and powerful serpents or other reptiles with magical or spiritual qualities. Most dragons are either European dragons, derived from various, European folk traditions, or unrelated, Oriental dragons, derived from the Chinese dragon.

Like most other mythological creatures, dragons are perceived in different ways by different cultures. Dragons are sometimes said to breathe and spit fire or poison as well as many other elements. They are commonly portrayed as serpentine or reptilian, hatching from eggs and possessing typically feathered or scaly bodies. They are sometimes portrayed as having large, yellow or red eyes, a feature that is the origin for the word for dragon in many cultures. They are sometimes portrayed with a row of dorsal spines, keeled scales, or leathery, bat-like wings. Winged dragons are usually portrayed only in European dragons while Oriental versions of the dragon resemble large snakes. Dragons can have a variable number of legs: none, two, four, or more when it comes to early European literature. Modern depictions of dragons tend to be larger than their original representations, which were often smaller than humans. [source: http://mythology.wikia.com/wiki/Dragon]